http://jct.sciedupress.com Journal of Curriculum and Teaching Vol. 4, No. 1; 2015 Education as Reconciliation: Resorting Inuit Nunangat Jay McKechnie1,* 1PO Box #479, Pond Inlet, NU, Canada *Correspondence: PO Box #479, Pond Inlet, NU, Canada. E-mail: [email protected] Received: October 12, 2014 Accepted: January 12, 2015 Online Published: March 8, 2015 doi:10.5430/jct.v4n1p56 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/jct.v4n1p56 Abstract Education is stated as the number one priority of the Government of Nunavut’s Sivumiut Abluqta mandate. The Nunavut education system is seen by many as failing to provide Inuit with the promise of supporting Inuit economic and social well-being. Today in Nunavut, there is a growing awareness of the effects of past colonialist polices and the need for individual and group healing. However, within the current education reforms, there is little discourse that reflects this colonialist history and how it continues to shape education in Nunavut. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: How did the transition from an autonomous lifestyle on the land, to a dependent lifestyle in communities, affect Inuit society? How are the intergenerational affects of this transition manifested in the classrooms of Nunavut? How can the education system facilitate a public discourse that supports healing and reconciliation? As a high school social studies teacher in Nunavut, I am primarily interested in addressing the role of Qallunaat (non-Inuit) teachers working in Nunavut. As part of the effort across Canada to find meaningful ways of reconciling the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians, I see myself as an educator as having an important role in this process of reconciliation. I will discuss the complex interplay of colonialist policies, intergenerational trauma, attachment, and change through the lens of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I will argue that understanding how intergenerational trauma continues to shape education in Nunavut is crucial in creating a shared narrative, that can ultimately lead to reconciliation by bringing individuals together in partnerships, to undertake the healing process and social reform. Keywords: Nunavut; education; intergenerational trauma; reconciliation 1. Introduction The Third Government of Nunavut Cabinet has promised to reform the education system for Nunavummiut as outlined in the Sivumiut Abluqta mandate. The complex interplay of historical trauma resulting from colonialist policies, and the current neo-liberal based education reforms, makes Nunavut an exciting site for engaging the topic of Aboriginal control of education. Canadian assimilation policies in the early part of the twentieth century were aimed at destroying Aboriginal culture. In Nunavut, the most destructive episodes of these policies were the relocation of Inuit into permanent settlements, followed by the residential school experience. The justification of the relocation of Inuit during this time period was due to many economic, political, and cultural factors. How did the transition from an autonomous lifestyle on the land, to a dependent lifestyle in communities, affect Inuit society in Nunavut? How are the intergenerational affects of this transition manifested in the classrooms of Nunavut? How can the education system facilitate a public discourse that supports healing and reconciliation? The reconciliation process demands a critical engagement with education in Nunavut to develop a shared narrative between Inuit and Qallunaat (non-Inuit). This shared narrative involves a comprehensive understanding of relocation and residential schools, intergenerational trauma, contemporary education in Nunavut, attachment theory, and the change process. In section one, I will begin with the history of relocation and colonialist policies in Nunavut, beginning in the 1930’s, which includes residential schools. The impact of residential school on Inuit culture and society will provide a context for engaging the complex issues of intergenerational trauma and attachment theory in Published by Sciedu Press 56 ISSN 1927-2677 E-ISSN 1927-2685 http://jct.sciedupress.com Journal of Curriculum and Teaching Vol. 4, No. 1; 2015 section two. From this historical perspective, I will discuss the contemporary issues facing education in Nunavut in section three. Finally, section four will provide a critical examination of the change process. I will discuss the complex interplay of these histories and ideas through the lens of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I will argue that a shared narrative requires an understanding of how intergenerational trauma continues to shape education in Nunavut. A shared narrative creates a platform for communication as a means of fostering a sense of solidarity to bring about meaningful change. The essence of reconciliation attempts to develop an understanding of the past by bringing individuals together in partnerships, in order to undertake the healing process and social reform. 2. Section 1: Relocations and Residential School – Historical Context 2.1 Relocations: Inuit Nunangat The expression Inuit Nunangat, translates as ‘the peoples land’. This term is used by Inuit to refer to their isolated part of the world. As Hugh Brody explains, this expression goes far beyond mere geographical significance, but in fact represents an ideal. The very idea of land permeates Inuit culture. The land is the place of the hunt, family, language, and culture; it is simply where one belongs. “To change or abandon such a place, according to this worldview, would be dangerous and foolish” (Brody, 2000, p. 15). As Brian Osborne points out, “the central premise of the geography of identity is human attachment to particular spaces” (Osborne, 2001, p. 2). The relocation of Inuit in the 1950s had a tremendous impact on Inuit culture, as it took Inuit off the land and away from their identity. During the 1940’s, particularly following the Second World War, great changes took place in the Eastern Arctic that influenced every aspect of Inuit culture and society. Frank Tester and Peter Kulchyski’s important work on the relocation of Inuit in the Eastern Arctic entitled, Tammarniit (Mistakes) offers an in-depth analysis of the government polices of assimilation and the various reasons for the relocation of Inuit. Beginning in the 1930s, and lasting for the next forty years, relocation was used to deal with various issues of dependency and welfare as a result of contact with southern culture. Inuit were relocated to the south for tuberculosis treatment, to army bases for employment, and to remote parts of the Arctic by the Hudson Bay Company to take advantage of the fox trade. During the 1940s and 1950s, children were moved to attend residential school, and later, Inuit were relocated to establish Canadian sovereignty in the High Arctic (Tester & Kulchyski, 1994). These decisions were based on the assumption that assimilation was for the benefit of Inuit (Henderson, 2007). Due to increasing contact with Qallunaat, an autonomous lifestyle on the land was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. The ability to rely on trapping as a source of income became extremely difficult with the collapse in fox fur prices in the late 1940s. Government dependency now became the harsh reality for Inuit as the economic conditions became so bad in the Eastern Arctic that relying on some form of social assistance became a necessity (Tester & Kulchyski, 1994). Traditional cultural practices now shifted in order to compensate for these new economic realties. One such shift can be illustrated trough traditional adoption practices. Prior to contact, traditional adoption practices often meant “children would often move extensively within the extended family unit. With the advent of family allowance, children became a source of income in a situation where income was very scarce” (Tester & Kulchyski, 1994, p. 72). This meant that children had to be attending school in order for the family to receive their family allowance. Ironically, and as a testament to Inuit resiliency, the residential school system was in fact producing radical ideologies in young Inuit. The argument for Inuit self-government, leading to the signing of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement in 1993, was a result of young Inuit students subverting the assimilation polices into forms of resistance. The efforts of these educated Inuit are the embodiment of what Paulo Freire refers to as “[t]he pedagogy of the oppressed, which it is the pedagogy of people engaged in the fight for their own liberation” (Freire, 1970, p. 53). However, intergenerational trauma, and issues of dependency resulting from these historical events, remains a large obstacle to overcome in order to realize the potential of Nunavut. 2.2 The Impact of Residential School The destructive nature of residential school resulted from separating Aboriginal peoples from their cultural identity. Residential school can be summed up as a “process of dispossession: of separating people from their means of sustenance, which, in most cases and for most cultures, is the land” (Tester & Kulchyski, 1994, p. 6). Aboriginal identity is a tightly interwoven web of land, history, and language. Residential school was a systematic attempt by the Canadian government to destroy Aboriginal culture in order to Published by Sciedu Press 57 ISSN 1927-2677 E-ISSN 1927-2685 http://jct.sciedupress.com Journal of Curriculum and Teaching Vol. 4, No. 1; 2015 assimilate Aboriginal peoples into